As a result of lots of years trying to combat spyware on my pc, i came up with an idea...
I have always used anti-spyware programs since they were first released but it seems to me to be pointless scanning your computer for spyware only for it to return as soon as you visit certain sites again, for example, removing cookies from your computer with a program like Ad-Aware is ok in theory but as soon as you return to one of the sites that gave you the cookies in the first place you are right back where you started.
As a result of this i have always used a slightly different method of preventing certain spyware on my computer, it goes something like this...
I first use Ad-Aware or similar to scan my pc, if any unwanted cookies are found i usually go to my cookies folder and open the cookie named as spyware in Ad-Aware with notepad, i then look for the web site address in the cookie, then open up my internet explorer privacy settings and block the site. This has advantages over other methods, for example deleting all your cookies on a daily basis as i have seen other users say they do, this is not a great method for two reasons, firstly because there might be some cookies that are useful to you on your system and secondly as i've already said, the cookies will just return as soon as you visit the site you got it from in the first place.
This led me to wonder why Microsoft never included the option to export and import your blocked web site list to/from Internet Explorer and from that came this idea...
I have made a registry file (tested with Internet Explorer only but looking at including Firefox soon) that will put all the blocked sites i know of so far into your Internet Explorer and prevent you from ever getting the cookies, it will of course also leave all your other cookies in tact and does not require you to continuously remove cookies.
You can download the file by clicking the button below. Internet Explorer users will have the option to save or run the file, if you choose to run the file, the registry entries will be added for you automatically, just click Yes when promted to add the blocked sites to your registry. If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser, after clicking on the download button below you will be presented with the registry entries in your browser window, simply go to File/Save page as... and save the file blocked_sites.reg to a safe place, ie. your desktop, then double click on the file to install the entries.
Download
The ONLY thing this file does is to setup your blocked sites list in Internet Explorer.
File last updated: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:33 PM
This is probably a small number of potential sites that should be blocked but these are amongst the most common annoying cookies, so if anyone has any others that are recognised by Ad-Aware or similar programs please send me some info so i can update the file. This file will be updated as i add more sites to the file so please check back for updates. It is also worth noting that this method of installing entries, only requires a restart of your computer before taking effect, the action is instant and any cookies on your computer from any of the sites listed in the blocked sites file will be deleted from your computer instantly which makes it very simple to use and very effective.
In addition, i also find using custom cookie rules to block third party cookies useful, sometimes when you visit certain web sites a cookie is sent to you from another domain, these are known as third party cookies and can easily be prevented, take a look at the picture below for more information. To access these settings open Internet Explorer and go to Tools/Internet Options/Privacy tab/Advanced.
View
These days i seem to keep a copy of Ad-Aware on my pc and regularly check for updates and scan my pc but i very rarely if ever detect anything, i also have Norton Internet Security 2006 but that also rarely if ever detects anything.
In its basic form, spyware prevention really can be this simple.
Enjoy...
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